Weekend Review: Radical Sewing

Radical Sewing / Kate Weiss 
Portland, OR: Microcosm Publishing, c2021.
192 p.

I was lucky to find this one via my library's online collection. Although I don't usually like sewing books in online formats generally, this one has the subtitle "Pattern-Free, Sustainable Fashions for All Bodies", so I thought a sewing book without patterns might be okay to read in e-book format! 

It was an interesting read, put out by a publishing company that has many other books on sustainable, alternative kind of topics. I thought it was a neat approach, bound to appeal to a different kind of audience; however, I didn't quite love it. I found the tone was a bit uneven, at times feeling like the author was speaking to beginners but at other times more aimed at those familiar with sewing -- the terminology sometimes felt like you should know a bit about sewing to really get the book. Which I did, but someone newer to the sewing world might feel a bit intimidated. And from the cover copy, it does seem like the gist of the book is to get newbies into sewing.

Additionally, despite the subtitle, there is a whole chapter of this book that talks about how to read and understand a sewing pattern. As that chapter begins, she acknowledges that despite the title, you may sometimes need to understand patterns. I agree, but wonder if a change in subtitle might have been more effective in getting across all the elements of this book. 

However, it was a pretty good overview that might appeal to a certain kind of reader already interested in zines, alternatives and 'radical' things in general. It has some funky drawings/illustrations and gives enough info for someone to actually learn quite a bit about sewing well. 

You can find out more about this one, and see some interior pages to help you judge the style and see if it's one for you, over at the publisher's website.